Sold for: $34,250

PROVENANCE
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
By descent to a Private Collection, Montreal
Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 23, 2007, lot 171
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Dennis Reid, Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1985, page 50, three similar oils dated circa 1951 and entitled Forest Giant, Vancouver Island listed pages 84 and 85

In 1951, a retrospective exhibition of Arthur Lismer’s work, originating at the Art Gallery of Toronto, traveled in an abbreviated version to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the UBC Fine Arts Gallery. This attention likely drew Lismer to take his first trip to the West Coast in the summer of that year. Using Galiano Island as a base, he explored Pender and Saltspring Islands, as well as Victoria and Long Beach on Vancouver Island. Inspired by the lush primeval rain forest, he would return for 16 summers. Lismer’s British Columbia forest and seashore paintings form an important part of his artistic oeuvre. His subjects were often close-ups of undergrowth and the bases of trees. As described by Dennis Reid, “The dark trunks of trees – with but an occasional glimmering shard of sky – form a swag-curtain background to the tumbling jewel-like plants of the forest floor.” Forest Giant, Vancouver Island focuses on a mighty evergreen trunk, with limbs reaching down like vines, backed by a massive log. Their dark mass is contrasted by the bright light streaming into a clearing behind. Voluptuous and jungle-like, Forest Giant, Vancouver Island is a powerful painting from Lismer’s West Coast works.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars